Government found guilty of rights abuses by International labour organisation

By Violet Gonda
14 June 2007

The International Labour Conference’s Standard’s Committee has found the Mugabe regime guilty of trade union and human rights violations. The Zimbabwe Congress of Trade Unions collated data of victims of torture and abuse, providing accounts and reports from individuals, and successfully presented its case to the Geneva based organisation. Ruth Dearnley, Head of Campaigns from Action for Southern Africa (ACTSA) said the Zimbabwean government refused to appear at the last minute before the Standard’s Committee, but a decision was made anyway.

She said this shows that the international labour movement is beginning to see the importance of fighting the human rights abuses that are occurring in Zimbabwe and is good news for the pro-democracy movement in Zimbabwe.

It’s reported the Zimbabwean government decided, at the last minute, against appearing before the Standards Committee after they had failed to lobby other governments to support them.

Dearnley said: “We need to keep on putting international pressure in support of our comrades within the ZCTU and civil society movement in Zimbabwe who are fighting this struggle.”

ACTSA’s Director, Kathryn Llewellyn, said in a statement: “The government must be made accountable for its actions and this important and emphatic step taken by the international labour movement is a positive move to make sure this happens.”

Meanwhile the Dutch based NGO ZimbabweWatch held a demonstration in The Hague, Netherlands this week protesting violations of human rights in Zimbabwe. A statement from the group said twenty people stood on twenty white pedestals on the lawn opposite the World Forum Convention Centre in The Hague forming a 'Living Museum' in solidarity with the millions of Zimbabweans whose human rights are violated on a daily basis.

ZimbabweWatch said the protest was also to draw specific attention to Francis Nhema, the Minister of Environment and Tourism, who is attending the 14th Conference of the Parties of the Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species of Wild Fauna and Flora in The Hague.

The pressure group distributed flyers outside the conference where Nhema is present to talk about issues concerning endangered wild animal species. But ZimbabweWatch said currently the most endangered species in Zimbabwe is the human race.

Part of the flyer read: “President Robert Mugabe and his ZANU PF-government have brought the country and its people to the brink of destruction. Human rights are violated on a grand scale. Inflation has reached the world record-breaking percentage of 3,700%. Journalists are killed, tortured or silenced. Members of the opposition, human rights activists, student leaders, lawyers and clergymen are brutally assaulted. The public health and judicial systems are bankrupt. Innocent people are being evicted from their homes…”